7 Conclusion

We’ll now return to the scenario we posed in the introduction, where a group of students express their discomfort when asked to work with articles related to vaccines. How would we react with an empathetic approach, based on the content in this handbook?

Our first step would be to respond with real empathy, and thank the student for approaching them with their concerns. This shows a great deal of trust they’ve placed in the librarian, in that they feel comfortable approaching them.

In this scenario, the goal of the article exercise is to understand the component parts of an academic article, not to discuss the efficacy of vaccines. Another academic article on a different topic would fulfill the goals of the activity equally. Rather than trying to dispute their perspectives on vaccines in the moment, you might take a longer view of the situation.

After agreeing for them to use a different article, you could ask some clarifying questions to better understand their concerns. How do articles related to vaccines make them feel? Have they always felt this way about the topic? This will give the students the opportunity to self-reflect on their own perceptions of the article topic, and perhaps share their own thought processes. You may also be able to identify some areas of common ground.

After the completion of the exercise, you could encourage them to reach out to you for further assistance, providing your direct contact information. You could also emphasize the programs and services regularly offered around library research, such as workshops, reference services, etc.

In this instance, you recognize the need for additional instructional support in the course around misinformation, disinformation, and fake news. After the class, you might approach the instructor for the possibility of inviting you back for a follow-up session on these topics, describing how you think the information may be beneficial to students in the class, even framing it as an extension to the first session, describing how the learning objectives are connected. You might start brainstorming some potential activities framed around lateral reading, the peer review process and other exercises related to critical thinking that may encourage students in the class to reflect on their own relationship with information that challenges their belief systems.